Eighteen members of a single Hyderabad family, three generations, including nine children, were among the 45 Indian Umrah pilgrims killed in the devastating bus crash near Madina in Saudi Arabia.
Mohammed Asif, a resident of Ramnagar, struggled to speak through tears as he confirmed that his father-in-law, mother-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, his wife, and his three children were among those Umrah pilgrims who collided with a diesel tanker and caught fire in the early hours of Monday.
“My sister-in-law, brother-in-law, their son, three daughters and their children went for Umrah. They left eight days ago. They had completed Umrah and were returning to Medina. Around 1.30 am, the accident happened… the bus was destroyed in the fire. They were supposed to return on Saturday,” Asif told NDTV.
“We were in constant touch with them until then. Eighteen members of one family, nine adults and nine children, are gone. It is a terrible tragedy for us,” he said.
The victims from this family include Naseeruddin (70), his wife Akhter Begum (62), their son Salauddin (42), daughters Amina (44), Rizwana (38), Shabana (40), and their children. At their home in Ramnagar, the grief was overwhelming. As a neighbour brought the keys to the house, Naseeruddin’s sister collapsed in tears, crying, “My brother’s entire family has been wiped out.”
The Telangana government has announced several measures in response to the tragedy, including ₹5 lakh ex gratia for the families of each deceased pilgrim. A delegation led by Telangana’s Minister for Minorities Welfare, Azher Uddin, will travel to Saudi Arabia to coordinate with local authorities, and the government will also sponsor two members from each bereaved family to fly to Saudi Arabia to attend the last rites.
According to Hyderabad Police Commissioner V.C. Sajjanar, IPS, 45 of the 46 passengers onboard died on the spot, and only one survivor, identified as Md Abdul Shoaib, has been admitted to a hospital in critical condition after the bus collided with the tanker and caught fire approximately 25 km before Medina.
The Consul General has met Abdul Shoeb Mohammed, the lone survivor of the tragic bus accident near Madinah involving Indian Umrah pilgrims, who is currently admitted in a hospital in Madinah.
The group had a travel schedule from the 9th to the 23rd of this month. Out of the 54 pilgrims originally travelling, four had gone ahead in a separate car and another four had stayed back in Mecca, leaving 46 passengers on the bus at the time of the accident.
The passengers belonged to multiple travel groups, including Al Makkah (15 travellers), Baab Ul Harmain (21), Hafsa (5), and Mahmood Bhaijaan (4). Among the pilgrims, 28 are reported to be women and 17 men.
